Young Jewish athletes and performance artists from around the country descended on Baltimore, Md., last week for the annual JCC Maccabi Games and ArtsFest. Between events, the young stars could be found chatting up Rabbi Nochum Katsenelenbogen, whose Owings Mills house sits just around the corner from the local Jewish Community Center.

“Every time I walk into the room the kids are over there talking to him, and the feedback I’ve gotten has been excellent,” Louis “Buddy” Sapolsky, President of the JCC of Greater Baltimore, said of Katsenelenbogen and his makeshift booth offering Jewish activities around the clock.

Katsenelenbogen, who directs Chabad-Lubavitch of Owings Mills, dispatched two rabbinical students to help him at the booth, which they dubbed “Chabad at Maccabi.” Throughout the weeklong competition, the booth attracted participants with assistance in the donning of the prayer boxes known as tefillin, handouts of Shabbat candle-lighting kits, and a 10-foot-high miniature Western Wall, where visitors had their pictures taken for free.

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Other organizations sponsored Israel-themed booths, a computer area and a place where kids could unwind with video games.

“Over the years, we’ve had an excellent relationship with Rabbi Katsenelenbogen, and we’re thrilled he’s able to be involved in the Maccabi games,” added Sapolsky.

“We provide a lot of spirituality in the sense that sometimes a kid comes back from a game that he lost, and we uplift his spirits,” said Zevi New, a rabbinical student from Brooklyn, N.Y., who helped with the booth. “It’s all about making conversation and making a connection.”

Just a week before the Baltimore event, New – who could also be found at last year’s games in S. Antonio, Texas – was in Denver, Colo., for that city’s Maccabi Games. (The week of Aug. 8 also saw games in Richmond, Va., and Omaha, Neb.)

“I'm still in touch with kids from last year’s games in S. Antonio,” said New. “Kids this year know me from last year. They bring their whole team with them. It’s good to get to see them a year later.”

Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Maryland, helps a teenager don the Jewish prayer boxes known as tefillin.
Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Maryland, helps a teenager don the Jewish prayer boxes known as tefillin.

Katsenelenbogen said that scores of teenage boys stopped by to don tefillin, a first-time ritual for many of them, while girls left the booth with the candle-lighting kiits.

“We’re just making sure they have a great Jewish time,” said the rabbi. “The mission is to get Jews involved in hands-on Judaism, things they’ll remember for a lifetime, because Maccabi is something they’ll remember for all their lives.”

For his part, Sapolsky pointed to the first-ever combination of the Maccabi Games and ArtsFest as a sign of things to come. The Games offered competitions in 14 separate events, from gymnastics to tennis, soccer, swimming, basketball, lacrosse and baseball. The ArtsFest, meanwhile, included workshops, performances, exhibitions and social activities related to dance, painting, music, film and other genres.

“The beauty is we’re hosting arts and sports,” he said. Jewish children of all stripes “are all having the same experience. It’s been spectacular.”